Treatment of rupture of suspensory ligament and superficial flexor tendon in a bull

Rupture of the suspensory ligament at the insertions on the proximal sesamoid bones, and of the superficial flexor tendon of the left fore limb, occurred in an adult Angus bull as a result of fighting. There was severe hyperextension of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint with the dewclaws almost touching the ground. Radiographs revealed severe hyper-extension of the MCP joint with the sesamoid bones aligned directly distal to the metacarpus. Initially, a full length fiberglass cast was applied with the limb partially flexed within the cast and the heels elevated. The cast was replaced twice. The cast was removed after 136 days and the bull was bearing full weight on the limb. Prolonged immobilisation of the limb produced new bone in the area (a normal response in cattle) to cause ankylosis of the traumatized MCP joint and partial ankylosis of the carpus. The bull was being used for pasture breeding one year after the injury.     

A cohort study of preweaning piglet mortality and farrowing accommodation on 112 commercial pig farms in England

A cohort study was carried out on 112 breeding pig farms in England to investigate the impact of type of farrowing accommodation on preweaning mortality in piglets. Four types of farrowing accommodation were studied; farrowing crates, indoor loose pens, crate/loose systems (where the sow was restrained in a crate during birth and the first days of lactation before being moved to a loose pen) and outdoor farrowing in arcs in paddocks. Four estimates of preweaning mortality were collected: an oral estimate from the farmer before the visit, an estimate from the 6-month rolling average from computer records, records from 20 litters observed when the farm was visited and prospective records collected from 20 farrowings after the visit. These four estimates were significantly correlated. The prospective records also included a farmer reported date and cause of death. From the prospective data there were 25,031 piglets from 2143 litters from 112 farms, 6.5% of piglets were stillborn while live born preweaning mortality was 12%. Mixed effect discrete time survival, binomial and competing risk, models were used to investigate the association between preweaning mortality and farrowing accommodation, controlling for sow parity, litter size and number of piglets stillborn and fostered. There was a reduced risk of stillbirths in outdoor farrowing systems compared with crated systems. Farmers reported that crushing of healthy piglets was the most frequent cause of death accounting for 55% of live born preweaning mortality. There was no significant difference in mortality in live born piglets by farrowing system. There was a significantly higher risk of farmer reported crushing of healthy live born piglets in outdoor arcs compared with piglets reared with sows in farrowing crates and a significantly reduced risk of death from causes other than crushing in piglets reared outdoors or in crate/loose systems compared with piglets reared in crated systems. We conclude that, in the farms in this study, farrowing crates reduced the risk of preweaning live born mortality attributable to crushing but piglets in this system were at increased risk of death from other causes. Consequently crates had no significant effect on overall preweaning mortality percentage. In all four commercial production systems; outdoor, farrowing crates, crate/loose farrowing systems and indoor loose housed systems, there were similar levels of mortality.     

Individual variation in prelaying behaviour and the incidence of floor eggs

1. Floor eggs are a problem in non‐cage systems for laying hens, as they require secondary egg collecting. Failure to lay in a well‐defined nest site may also be a welfare problem for the hens, but only if their nesting motivation has been thwarted.

2. We investigated the relationships between a hen's prelaying behaviour and its tendency to lay on the floor by recording the behaviour of 20 hens housed individually in wire cages with single littered nest boxes.

3. Most floor eggs (80%) were laid by the same 6 hens. These 6 “floor‐layers” performed more nest seeking behaviour, less nest‐building behaviour and less sitting prior to oviposition than the 14 hens that consistently laid in nest boxes.

4. The incidence of floor eggs declined with age. Both nest and floor laying hens performed less nest seeking behaviour with age. Floor layers, however, increased their performance of nesting behaviour, whilst nest layers performed less nesting behaviour with age.

5. Floor laying hens behaved as if they found the nest box less attractive than nest‐laying hens; perhaps because they had lower nesting motivation, or perhaps because their nesting motivation was as high, but they less readily perceived the nest box as an appropriate nest site.     

Defective Movement of Viruses in the Family Bromoviridae Is Differentially Complemented in Nicotiana benthamiana Expressing Tobamovirus or Dianthovirus Movement Proteins

ABSTRACT Taxonomically distinct tobacco mosaic tobamovirus (TMV), red clover necrotic mosaic dianthovirus (RCNMV), cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), brome mosaic bromovirus (BMV), and cowpea chlorotic mottle bromovirus (CCMV) exhibit differences in their host range. Each of these viruses encodes a functionally similar nonstructural movement protein (MP) that is essential for cell-to-cell movement of a progeny virus. Despite the lack of significant amino acid identity among the MPs of CMV, TMV, and RCNMV, movement-defective CMV (CMVFnyDeltaMP-DeltaKPN) was able to move locally and systemically in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana expressing either TMV MP (NB-TMV-MP(+)) or RCNMV MP (NB-RCNMV-MP(+)). These observations contrast with those of previous studies in which transgenic N. tabacum cv. Xanthi plants expressing TMV MP supported only the cell-to-cell movement of CMVFnyDeltaMP-DeltaKPN. To verify whether similar complementation could be observed for movement-defective bromoviruses, NB-TMV-MP(+) and NB-RCNMV-MP(+) plants were inoculated independently with movement-defective variants of BMV (B3DeltaMP) and CCMV (CC3DeltaMP). Neither NB-TMV-MP(+) nor NB-RCNMV-MP(+) was able to rescue the defective cell-to-cell and long-distance movement of B3DeltaMP. In contrast, NB-RCNMV-MP(+) complemented the cell-to-cell, but not the long-distance, movement of CC3DeltaMP. Taken together, these studies suggest that virus movement is a complex process and that, in some cases, the host species plays a major role in determining the long-distance movement function of a virus.     

Uplifted marine terraces along the alpine fault, new zealand

Three types of evidence indicate that marine terraces are widespread in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. (i) Remnants of shore platforms occur as distinct levels of notched ridge crests and flat summits; degraded sea cliffs are common. (ii) Scattered quartz beach pebbles occur on 16 of 18 levels of exhumed shore platforms in the Fox- Franz Josef type area to altitudes as high as 1700 meters. (iii) Altitudinal spacings of New Zealand terrace flights allow correlation with 18 dated global marine terraces at New Guinea, which were formed during glacio-eustatic highstands of sea level within the last 336 x 10(3) years. Inferred uplift rates at Fox-Franz Josef increased from 3.2 to 7.8 meters per 10(3) years since about 135 x 10(3) to 140 x 10(3) years ago, presumably because of increased convergence between the Pacific and Australian plates.     

TILLING and Ecotilling the Plant Kingdom

The modem crop scientist has a large amount of available nucleotide sequence information to identify genes of potential agronomic importance. Using reverse genetic approaches, specific genes can be disrupted, and hypotheses regarding gene function directly tested in vivo. Although a number of reverse genetic methods have been introduced, many are limited in application because they are organism-specific, expensive, transgenic, or only transiently disrupt gene function. However, traditional mutagenesis using chemical mutagens has been widely used as a forward genetics strategy to create many new crop plant varieties at relatively low cost. Mutagens such as ethyl methanesulphonate （EMS） cause stable point mutations and thus produce an allelic series of truncation and missense changes that can provide a range of phenotypes （Greene et al., 2003）. TILLING （targeting induced local lesions IN genomes） is a high-throughput reverse genetic strategy that combines traditional mutagenesis and SNP discovery methods （Colbert et al., 2001; McCallum et al., 2000）. To identify mutations, target regions of-l.5 kb are amplified with fluorescently labeled gene specific primers. Heteroduplexes are then formed between wild-type and mutant strands, mismatches are cleaved by incubation with a single-strand specific nuclease,     

Impact of fixation/drying conditions on fixation rate, teachability and bioefficacy in CCA-C treated red pine and southern pine

Red pine (Pinus resinosia Ait) and southern pine (Pinus spp.) sapwood blocks were pressure treated with CCA-C at retention of 6.4, 2.0, 1.5 kgm^-3 followed by fixation using 11 post-treatment schedules ranging from 50–70 °C and 5 different relative humidity conditions. The effect of these post-treatment schedules on fixation rate, chemical leachability and decay resistant once were evaluated to better understand the effects of fixation/drying conditions on leachability and biodeterioration. Southern pine blocks fixes slightly slower than red pine. Fixation of CCA at high temperature high humidity, essential initially fixation at high humidity for fixation/drying schedules, resulted in lower leaching of chromium and arsenic elements than high temperature low humidity or initially fixation at the high temperature low humidity conditions. Copper leaching was indicated no significant difference under 11 fixation/drying conditions for both species. Weight losses for southern pine byChaetomium globosum was lower than red pine byGloeophyllom trabeum. There were some different capacities of decay resistance for both species under those post treatment conditions.     

PEG bulking of wood cell walls as affected by moisture content and nature of solvent

Movement of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 1000 from wood cell lumens into adjacent cell walls was studied for different cell wall moisture contents (MCs) and PEG solvents; relative amounts of PEG that penetrated into the cell walls were estimated by Raman microscopy. It was shown that samples treated with PEG from chloroform solution adsorb less PEG than samples treated with PEG-water solution even in the case of samples with open cell wall structure near fibre saturation point MC. Reconditioning of PEG-chloroform treated samples at high relative humidities enhanced PEG bulking of cell walls, but not to the maximum amounts observed with PEG-water treatments. Raman microscopy was a useful tool for estimating relative PEG amounts in the cell walls.     

A systematic survey of loss-of-function variants in human protein-coding genes

Genome-sequencing studies indicate that all humans carry many genetic variants predicted to cause loss of function (LoF) of protein-coding genes, suggesting unexpected redundancy in the human genome. Here we apply stringent filters to 2951 putative LoF variants obtained from 185 human genomes to determine their true prevalence and properties. We estimate that human genomes typically contain ~100 genuine LoF variants with ~20 genes completely inactivated. We identify rare and likely deleterious LoF alleles, including 26 known and 21 predicted severe disease-causing variants, as well as common LoF variants in nonessential genes. We describe functional and evolutionary differences between LoF-tolerant and recessive disease genes and a method for using these differences to prioritize candidate genes found in clinical sequencing studies.